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Who is this man pretending to be Andrea Bargnani and what did he do with the real one? This guy who has been aggressively battling for rebounds and repeatedly taking it to the hole is not the pastry chef I've grown accustomed to.
In the first 258 games of his NBA career, Bargnani grabbed 10 or more rebounds in a game just 14 times and his career-high was a 12-rebound performance against the Pistons in November. Last Monday, Bargnani snatched 17 rebounds against Indiana and he followed that up by pulling down 12 boards against the Knicks. He only had six rebounds on Sunday, but it was more than enough as the Raptors still out-rebounded the Mavericks on the way to a dominant 110-88 victory.
Midway into his fourth season, Bargnani is finally starting to pay off the patience the Raptors have shown with him since they drafted him first overall in the 2006 draft. I will readily admit that I had pretty much written him off in terms of ever living up to his considerable potential. I basically came to the conclusion that he would never be more than a one-dimensional scorer — a three-point specialist who just happens to be seven feet tall.
But there's something new in the way Bargnani has been playing lately, something I haven't seen from him before. He's showing a fire that was clearly lacking for most of the past three-and-a-half seasons. It's like he suddenly realized that he's one of the biggest and strongest guys on the court and he finally understands how he can use that to his advantage. It certainly took him long enough, but now let's see if he keeps it up.
Thanks in large part to Bargnani's emergence and Bosh's continued excellence, the Raptors have won 10 of their last 13 games and they're a game over .500 at the halfway mark of the season. Over their next 20 games, they play 13 games at home and 11 games against sub-.500 teams. If they can stay healthy, I don't think it's crazy to suggest they could go 14-6 over that stretch. I have to say, I did not see this coming. In spite of my earlier piss-take, I'll be more than happy to be wrong about how good this team might actually be. 
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